Sourcebooks Casablanca Romance Authors

Okay, there are only 10... but it sounded good as a title. Here are the answers: 1. leprechaun on the left from Genie Knows Best blonde mermaid in the middle = Angel from Catch of a Lifetime crystal and brass lantern lower right from Genie Knows Best 2. golfer merman. No named characters are golfers in the stories, but I have to think there's a course in Atlantis, so this could be from any of the Mer books. 3. 2 mermen in this picture. One with a cocktail in the upper left and another one on the bottom center in a red tshirt with weights. Again, could be from any of the Mer series. 4. in the center in the back is a mermaid in a shell. You have to look very closely to see it. There is also a genie bottle on a gold cord to the right of her, but the genie bottle decided to turn when I took the picture, so you can't really tell what it is. On the right upper corner is a purple and blue hummingbird butt. sigh. I know. But it's from I Dream of Genies. 5. Okay, trick q...

I have several silk trees in my house. I think they make the place look nice, especially with little white lights in them (which make great night lights), and, as opposed to real trees, these actually look good all the time for me. (I do NOT have a green thumb, unfortunately.) And the lights makes it feel like Christmas all year. I even have one in my office and, as you can see from the picture, it's a favorite hangout for my animals. Vixen insisted on being in this picture. Yes, she takes after me. :) What's nice about the tree in my office is that I have ornaments on it all year--that I've received from readers and friends to celebrate my stories. I've posted 5photos below. Let's see how many you all can find. A copy of Genie Knows Best to the person who gets the most! Bonus points for knowing which story they represent. Happy Holidays from under the sea and sands! 1. (3 in this picture) 2. (1 in here) 3. (2 in this picture) 4. (2 in this one) 5. (3 in this one...

by Judi Fennell I'm writing this on Saturday afternoon to post on Sunday because I'm in the Northeast and it's definitely NOT hot here as we wait for Irene. It's been raining since about 1 (5 hours ago) and I'm keeping an ear focused on the basement where our battery back-up sump pump will squeal when it's services are called upon. I'm hoping that doesn't happen. As long as we don't lose power, we should be fine. So, what IS hot here in the Northeast? Let's say, first of all, generators. They're hot. How hot? Well, when I went to Home Depot on Tuesday to get a generator, I got the second-to-last "affordable" one in stock. The guy who helped me said they'd had a run on them. I know this is the first time I've ever bought a generator for a storm. What else is hot? Flashlights, apparently. Here's my local Walmart on Friday: Water, too, is apparently, one of the hottest items around. My sister took this pictur...

My "Call" story starts long before the book was even finished. Deb and I met at the 2007 National Conference when she had been a Golden Heart judge and LOVED Robin Kaye’s finalling (winning) manuscript, Romeo, Romeo . She offered Robin a contract AT National. Robin and I, not knowing a whole heck of a lot about Sourcebooks, went to their Spotlight and were blown away by Dominique and Deb’s enthusiasm and publishing history. Robin was thrilled to accept the contract and I was thrilled for her! What does Robin’s sale have to do with mine? Well, Deb hung out with us a lot during National. I got to know her; she got to know me. I had already submitted a time travel to her so that was sitting in her queue. She got to it a few weeks after National, sadly, rejecting it. But that was okay. Flash forward to October 2007 at the New Jersey Conference . Deb was there. We chatted. She sat at my table for lunch and I proceeded to drag pitches from everyone at our table b/c I kne...

Motherhood. What a topic. I am a mother, so I could wax poetic (but I don't write poetry, so why should I?) I could write about my mom, but then we'd get all teary-eyed and who wants that? I could write about my GRANDmom, but she's dealing with oncologists and that'd bring up MORE tears, so, again, why should I? I think I'll take the safe route and let the mothers in my book have her say. Everyone, I give you Kai, mother of Rod, Reel, Mariana, Angel and Pearl Tritone, followed by Ceto, the mother of all sea monsters. Hello everyone and thank you so much to Judi for having me here today. It's been a real adventure these last few months, what with Reel finding love with a Human, Rod taking over my husband's position, and Angel... ah, Angel. That woman does have a mind of her own. As those of you who are mothers can attest, raising kids isn't the easiest job in the world, but I like to think of it as the most rewarding. When your son can share his darkest f...

Yes, you've guessed it. I'm talking about what you say when someone sneezes. Okay, can I get a collective eye roll, please? I can hear you all now: "Only Judi would blog about sneezes." Actually, I'm not talking sneezes; I'm talking SNEEZERS. With an R. As in "one who." Why in the world am I talking about Sneezers? And why am I capitalizing it? At this month's chapter meeting, our speaker mentioned Sneezers - people who will "sneeze" about your stories. You want Sneezers. And you want them Sneezing big, honking Sneezes. Think about what happens when someone sneezes (with the lowercase s ). Polite society requires the use of a handkerchief or tissue so the sneeze is contained. And, yes, please use them. But when it comes to book Sneezes, I say, "Fie on those handkerchiefs!" You don't want anyone containing their Sneeze. Case in point: one of our chaptermates had a real estate agent put something about her, a local author, ...

The holidays are coming, the holidays are coming! Um… yay ? The moment Halloween ends, we get inundated with Christmas. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas. I love December. I love the whole deck-the-halls thing. Peace and goodwill. December, for all the holiday-shopping craziness, always seems like a “soft” month to me: mittens and scarves, hugs, warm hot chocolate, snow… Back in the day, (i.e. the Dark Ages) we used to have snow all winter. I could make snowmen in December. The nights got dark early. It was cold, and we all cuddled up in our down jackets that made us look like the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man or the Micheline Man. Remember the plastic bread bags we put over our socks before putting on our boots to go out in the snow—which ensured you’d end up with frostbite from all the sweating your feet did in them. That scene in A Christmas Story where Ralphy can barely walk for all the “huddled up”-ness cracks me up. That was the December of my childhood and I loved i...

I'm in the middle of my blog tour for Wild Blue Under and this time I had a better idea of what to expect since it's my second book. So when I was writing the blogs, I tried to tie the story or my inspiration or my characters into something that would resonate with people, other than just telling them about the story. Know what my biggest hits have been so far? The posts about the inspiration for the series, which is, basically, the television shows I grew up watching. I even did a "guess that leading man" thing on Wickedly Romantic yesterday. So I won't reiterate it here, but it got me to thinking: television had a big influence on my writing, but so did the movies. JAWS is a given because there's that whole terrified-of-the-ocean thing I gave Erica in In Over Her Head , and Failure to Launch because Matthew McConaughey's character (and fabulous gorgeous-ness) lent itself to Reel, and I loved It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World which contributed to th...

Launch Party! Release Day! Let the fireworks ring out! Let the jets fly overhead! Let freedom ring— Okay, perhaps I’m going a bit overboard. (Yes, sea analogy totally intentional.) But it does show my feelings as my second book, Wild Blue Under , hits stores. To celebrate, a couple of my characters decided they’d dive in to spread the word since, after about 25 blogs, I think I might have run out of things to say. First up, Chumley Masticar. (A deluxe, beautifully-appointed saltwater aquarium is wheeled onto the deck; inside, a sucker-less remora swims over multicolored coral and through a lava sculpture reminiscent of the Arch at Land’s End .) “Chumley Masticar here. You all might remember me from my save-the-Mer- world role in In Over Her Head , yes? Where I enabled hero Reel Tritone to save the girl, the diamonds, and his life?” He nods his neck-less head. “And what thanks do I get? A marble bust in downtown Atlantis? A celebratory parade? Dinne...